Christmas Presents
by ArtikGato
Summary: Kagome spends Christmas with her friends in Feudal Japan! This is Kagome x Inuyasha, and also Sango x Miroku to some extent.


**Christmas Presents**

**By ArtikGato**

Disclaimer: I OWN INUYASHA!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! What? WHAT DO YOU MEAN I DON'T?!?!?! But...but...oh, all right! I don't own Inuyasha! There!! If I did, rest assured that Kikyo would be so dead that she could never be revived, EVER!!! And Naraku would be a good guy!! (because he's too cool to kill!!) And Sesshomaru would DEFINITELY be a good guy!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Author's Notes: This is yet another one-shot Kagome x Inuyasha fanfic. If you detest the pairing, go back right now. I don't bash really anybody in this story, but be warned that there is a little itty bitty teensy weensy microscopic of Miroku x Sango in this story as well. If you don't like mushy romance stuff, then go back now for your own sanity!! Anywho, if you LIKE this story (which I'm sure that ohsovery many of you will!!!) then you might want to read 'Letters' and 'Moment of Weakness', two of my other stories that are exactly like this one only with a different plot!! Trust me, you'll understand soon enough. Oh, and if you like this story then please review!! I like getting reviews because I like hearing people's thoughts on my story, good and bad!! (but no flames!!) Now, with all of THAT said and done, ON WITH THE %$#@ FIC!!!         

            Kagome knew she was in a dream. She had to be. But, she really didn't care. She was on a cliff...or maybe it was a ship, she couldn't tell. Miroku and Sango were sitting somewhere nearby, sleeping peacefully, entangled in each other's arms. Shippo was resting against her, and she was leaning against...someone. In her dream, she blinked, and looked over to her left. She caught a glimpse of red fabric and white hair. She suddenly realized that she was leaning against Inuyasha. 

            "_Huh?_" she asked. His face was turned away from her at the moment, but his ears twitched, and he turned to look at her. He had an almost...worried expression at first, but when he saw that she was awake, he...smiled?!

            "_What the--_?!" she thought. 

            "How are you doing?: Inuyasha asked. She blinked, but answered.

            "All right...how about you?" she asked. He just nodded. Her eyes suddenly met his, and she realized that he had been staring into her eyes for some time now. Kagome's heart raced, as he tilted his head downward, toward hers. Their lips were centimeters apart...         

            "WAKE UP KAGOME!!!" someone shouted. She bolted upright with a startled yelp, her cheeks a dark crimson and the rest of her face not far from it. She was about to yell at whoever had woken her up, when she saw her little brother bounced out of her room excitedly, shouting "IT'S CHRISTMAS IT'S CHRISTMAS IT'S **CHRISTMAS!!!**". She sighed, realizing that it was, indeed, Christmas morning. She laughed a little, and got up to head downstairs. 

            "WOW!!! THE NEW MORTAL KOMBAT GAME!! AWESOME!!!" Sota practically screamed in glee, as she entered the room. Her grandfather and her mother were seated in the living room, in front of their huge Christmas tree, and Sota was currently underneath it, buried in a pile of wrapping paper and unwrapped presents. She sighed, and sat down beside her mother on the couch. 

            "We're letting Sota unwrap all of his presents first?" Kagome asked. Her grandfather and mother nodded, as Sota ripped open yet another package. The young boy suddenly recoiled in horror, tossing the 'gift' into the air with a yelp. Grandfather Higurashi(sp?) caught it, and glared at Sota. 

            "Sota! This is an authentic stomach of a dragon!! How could you toss it into the air like that?!" Grandfather Higurashi demanded. Everyone but him sweatdropped. 

            "_I hope that Grandpa got me something less gross than that..._" Kagome thought. After a few minutes of arguing, Sota decimated the rest of his presents, and ran off to play his new Mortal Kombat game in glee, leaving the rest of the presents in a chaotic pile under the Christmas tree. Kagome's mother went to distribute the presents. Kagome went over the list of the presents she had bought in her head. 

            "_I got Mom a necklace and a bunch of candles, I got Grandpa that book about ancient myths because I figured he'd appreciate it, and I got--_" her thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door.

            "I'll get it!" Kagome volunteered, and sprang up to get the door. She blinked in surprise at who was on the other side of the door.

           "Hojo?!" she asked. Hojo, with his usual cheerful smile, extended his hands, which held a small, neatly wrapped present.

            "For you!" he said. She arched an eyebrow, but took the present, giving Hojo a little nervous smile. She opened it, and nearly screamed in surprise. 

            "Hojo...why did you...you didn't have to...why did you spend so much money on me?!" she nearly shouted, looking down at the unwrapped present in her hand. If she wasn't mistaken, that was a GOLD necklace with DIAMONDS in it... Hojo grinned.

            "Oh, it was nothing! My parent's store also sells jewelry at the holidays, and the let me have that for free for helping out around the store!" he replied, cheerily. She gaped at him.

            "Um..." she managed to utter. He grinned.

            "Well, see ya later!" he exclaimed, and ran back to his bicycle. She waved at him as he took off down the street, still with a shocked look on her face. 

            "Who was at the door, Kagome?" her mother called.

            "Hojo..." she managed to say. 

            "What did he want?" she asked.

            "He just came by to give me a Christmas present," she replied.     

            "Well isn't that sweet of him!" Kagome's mother replied. 

            "Yeah...really nice..." she said, looking down at the rather expensive looking necklace in her hands. 

            "_I guess he really REALLY likes me..._"

            "Bye Mom! Bye Grandpa! Bye Sota!" Kagome called, as she half carried, half dragged her backpack, which was crammed full of...STUFF!!

            "Bye Kagome!!" Sota called, over the loud sounds of violent and brutal combat coming from the tv.         

            "Bye Kagome! Have fun in the Feudal Era!" Grandfather Higurashi called. 

            "Oh! Are you leaving now, Kagome?!" her mother called. 

            "Yeah! Remember, I said I was going to go celebrate Christmas with my friends back in the Feudal Era!" Kagome called. Kagome's mother walked in.

            "Well, do you think you can make room for some cookies? I just got through baking them, and I'm sure that your friends would appreciate them," her mother suggested. Kagome sighed, but nodded, taking the bag of cookies from her mother and stuffing it into her incredibly full backpack. 

            "Thanks Mom. See you tomorrow!" she exclaimed, hefting her backpack onto her shoulder.

            "Don't you need your sleeping bag?" her mother asked. 

            "Nah, it's over there, on the other side of the well, already," she replied.                 

            "Okay. Well, tell them that I said hello. Especially the boy with the cute ears," her mother said bidding her farewell.

            "All right," she said, and hefted her incredibly heavy backpack onto her back, and stumbled out of the door under it's weight, towards the wellhouse. 

            Kagome sighed, looking up, out of the well and into the starry sky of Feudal Japan. She had failed to remember that she had to climb _out_ of the well with her incredibly heavy backpack. She sighed, and began her struggle out of the well. She was finally out of the cursed hole in the ground, and had her hand on the last brick, when she suddenly began to slip. Just as she was about to fall to the bottom of the well, a hand caught her wrist, and started to haul her up, and out of the well. 

            "Kuso, Kagome, what do you HAVE in that backpack?!" asked a familiar voice, as she slung the accursed thing over her shoulder and onto the ground. 

            "Don't even ask," she said, looking up at her savior. 

            "No seriously, what do you have, the world's biggest collection of stones?!" Inuyasha asked.

            "Just about a ton of blankets and clothes and stuff," she replied, standing up, and preparing to heft the thing onto her back once again. 

            "Blankets are NOT that heavy," he protested. She just chuckled at her own stupidity, for having forgotten about having to climb out of the well.

            "Thanks, Inuyasha," she said, and turned to pick up her backpack. She was stopped when Inuyasha picked it up, obviously struggling with it, but successfully slinging it over his shoulder.

            "Come on. It's almost dark, and it's the middle of winter. We need to get back to the village before the sun sets," he said. She knew that he was suggesting that they 'fly' there.

            "Are you sure you want to carry both me AND that huge gigantic backpack?" Kagome asked. 

            "I'll live," he replied. She shrugged.

            "Ok, your call," she replied. In no time, they were sailing over the tops of the snow-covered trees, towards the village that Kagome knew all too well. 

            When they arrived at the village, Kagome was surprised to see that it was decked out for the holidays as well. There was at least one candle burning in every window, and inside of many houses, festive parties were happening. 

            "Wow...so they celebrate Christmas now, too," she said, absentmindedly. Inuyasha didn't say anything, but shifted her backpack on his back so that it was a little less painful for him to carry. They finally made it to Kaede-baba's hut, which had candles in every window sill, and sitting all around the house on the ground or on snow covered objects. There was a roaring fire inside, and many villagers were inside, laughing, talking, and eating. Inuyasha entered, dropping Kagome's huge backpack by the door, followed by Kagome. Shippo instantly bounded over to Kagome, with a mouth stuffed full of bread. 

            "Kmgmph!!" he exclaimed. 

            "Hey Shippo! Having fun?" Kagome asked. He nodded, ecstatically, and bounced away. Miroku and Sango greeted her next.

            "So, you finally made it, eh?" Miroku asked. She nodded.             

            "Did you have a good Christmas?" asked Sango. Kagome nodded ecstatically, and proceeded to tell the story of her Christmas to Sango, who listened attentively. Most of the people from this time period, Kagome had found, liked to hear about her time period, even the most boring details. 

            "Let's see...I got some clothes from my Mom, and some...THING from Grandpa...I got a tacky sweater from my Aunt that lives in Sapporro, and Sota got me a key chain...oh...yeah, and Hojo got me this," Kagome babbled, finally reaching into her monstrous backpack and producing the necklace of incredibly expensiveness that Hojo had given her. Sango and Miroku gaped.

            "Wow...that's very...expensive..." Miroku said. Coming from him, who had 'come into possession' of a lot of jewelry, this meant that it was very VERY expensive.

            "This Hojo kid must really like you," Sango replied.

            "SHIIIIINYYYYY!!!" Shippo marveled. Inuyasha scowled in a corner, glaring at the floor.

            "_What's that Hojo kid got that I don't? So what, he can give her big flashy jewelry..._" Kagome sighed, as if annoyed.

            "I don't know what I'm going to do with it. I mean, I can't keep it, and it would be rude to give it back to Hoj--" Kagome started, but saw Inuyasha sulking in the corner. She suddenly felt really bad. 

            "Inuyasha?" she asked.

            "Hmm?" the dog-demon replied, not looking away from the floor. Kagome's shoulder's slumped. 

            "Y-you're not still hurt from having to carry my backpack are you?" she asked. Miroku and Sango, who had been watching with interest, facefaulted. Inuyasha turned around to face her, with an amused smile on his face.

            "Are you kidding? That thing was as light as a feather!" Inuyasha lied. 

            "Oh...well, why were you sulking then?" she asked. He blushed.

            "Uh...I wasn't sulking!! I was looking at the floor!! Such an _interesting_ floor Kaede has..." he tried to cover up his obvious embarrassment. It was plain to see that Kagome didn't buy his 'excuse', if one could even call THAT an excuse, but she just decided to drop it.

            "Ok. Whatever," she replied, turning back to Sango, Shippo and Miroku.

            "Like I said, I can't give it back to Hojo, but I can't keep it either. I'd feel way too guilty," she said.

            "Why's that?" Miroku asked. Kagome looked at him as if he had a goose on his head.

            "Well, for one thing, it's too expensive for him to be giving it to me as a friend," she replied.

            "I hate to tell you this, Kagome, but I don't think he's giving you that necklace as a friend," Sango pointed out. Inuyasha arched his shoulders and glared at the wall in malice, but didn't make a sound.

            "I know," she replied. Everyone blinked, confused. Shippo decided that bread was less confusing than Kagome, so he abandoned the 'grown ups' and went to feast. Something suddenly occurred to Miroku.

            "So you're saying that he likes you, but you don't like him?" he asked. Sango snickered.

            "Kinda like your relationship with every girl in the known universe," she replied. Miroku glared at her, but didn't do anything. 

            "Yeah, I guess that's what it's like," Kagome replied. Inuyasha suddenly sighed in relief, and froze when they all turned to look at him. 

            "Uhmm...WHEW!!! Shippo didn't eat all of the bread yet!!!" Inuyasha quickly covered, and darted off toward the fox-cub. Everyone looked at him oddly with sweatdrops on their faces, but just returned to their conversation. 

            About an hour later, the number of people(and demons) had dwindled down to six: Inuyasha, Kagome, Shippo, Sango, Miroku, and Kaede. They were currently sitting around the fire talking, Shippo sitting in Kagome's lap, and Inuyasha sitting a little ways off from the group. Miroku was, of course sitting next to Sango, who kept glancing warily at the monk. Kaede abruptly interrupted the discussion, announcing that she was getting tired, so it was time for them to exchange presents. Kagome jumped up, and laboriously hauled her incredibly large backpack over to where she was sitting. 

            "Wow!! Don't tell me that's MY gift!?" Shippo exclaimed, hopefully.

            "No, silly, your gift is IN here!" she replied, and proceeded to pull out five wrapped presents of assorted shapes and sizes. 

            Shippo got his first, and, after several unsuccessful attempts to unwrap the thing, he incinerated the paper, and was left with a metal thing covered in singed, melted plastic. Kagome called it a 'truck'. At first, Shippo was disappointed, but then he started to mess around with the square plastic thing Kagome called a 'remote', and found out that he could make the 'truck' move around by one of the round thingies on the 'remote'. He was entertained for the rest of the night with the contraption, at least until he drove it into Inuyasha's hair 'accidentally' and Inuyasha smote the thing 'accidentally'. Kagome had yelled 'sit' fifteen times for good measure, then given Shippo the cookies that his mother had baked as a substitute present. This probably delighted Shippo even more than the truck.          

            Sango received her present second. She was relieved to find that she knew what it was, unlike Shippo's odd 'truck'. Kagome had gotten Sango a silver cord with a silver cross hanging around the cord at the bottom. Sango had thanked her many times over, saying that she had never dreamed of owning something of such high value. Kagome had replied that it really wasn't all that expensive, which didn't stop Sango from thanking her numerous times.

            Miroku had looked disappointed at the small wrapped gift that Kagome had handed him, but when he opened it, he was no longer disappointed. Inside was a contraption that Kagome called a 'pen.' Whatever it was, Miroku was delighted to no extent with it. When he pushed down on one end of the pen, the middle, which appeared to be made of crystal or ice (it was plastic, actually), glowed with many different colors!! Miroku was absolutely fascinated with the thing. Kagome had tried to show him that he could make marks on a piece of paper with it, but Miroku had made one mark, said something to the effective of 'interesting,' and went back to staring at the flashing lights like a little child. 

            Kaede had received something that Kagome called a 'first aid kit'. She had shown Kaede how to use the various things inside of it, saying that she could heal someone with an injury much faster with the medicines in the kit than she could with her present medicines. Kaede had replied that she would try to use the medicines in the kit, if she could figure out what to use on what.

            Finally, Inuyasha's gift. Kagome recalled that she had stood in one store of her local mall pondering what she should get Inuyasha for nearly three hours. She had absolutely no clue what to get for the half-demon, because she knew that nothing less than the Shikon no Tama whole again and ready for him to use would make him happy. Still, she thought that she had come to the right decision as to what to get him when she walked out of the store. Inuyasha unwrapped the gift, and looked at it with an arched eyebrow. 

            "It's a rock?" he asked. She smiled.

            "Not just any rock. That is a magical crystal. My grandfather says that it will give good luck to whoever keeps it," she explained. 

            "O...kay..." he said, and lifted the crystal out of the box it was in. It was a fairly good-sized crystal, being about as thick as the handle of the Tetusaiga. He went to put the crystal back in, but stopped in mid-motion, when he noticed a piece of paper in the small box where the crystal had been. 

            '_I'll give you the second half of your present later_' was all that it said. He looked over at Kagome in confusion. She just smiled at him. He shrugged, and put the crystal back up in the box. Miroku suddenly jumped up, ran to a corner of the hut, and returned with five random things. The first one, which he gave to Sango, was an expensive looking pendant of a cat (which looked a lot like Kirara), made of silver and having green stones embedded in it.

            "Wow, Miroku, this looks expensive. Thanks," she said, smiling at him. 

            "Nah, it was a steal, really," he replied, with a slight blush on his cheeks.

            "Literally," Inuyasha said, causing everyone, including Miroku, to laugh a little. Miroku then gave Kagome a lesser expensive looking bracelet, still made of silver. He gave Shippo a bunch of toys, probably toys that he had gotten from one of his 'exorcisms'. To Kaede, he gave a shawl, which looked to be made of fine silk. Finally, he gave Inuyasha a bunch of fire-rat cloth, saying that he had no earthly idea what to give the dog-demon. Inuyasha just shrugged, not caring.

            Sango started off by apologizing to everyone for the fact that she could not get them gifts as great as Miroku's. She gave all of the adults a bunch of rice cakes and she gave Shippo a sweet breadlike food. Shippo hugged everyone and said that he didn't know that they were supposed to exchange gifts. Poor Kaede had already fallen asleep by this point, so it was not known whether she was going to give out gifts or not. All eyes in the room fell on Inuyasha. He shrugged.

            "I don't do celebrations," he simply said. The rest of the contents of the room yelled at him, but he didn't say anything else. Shippo whined at him, so finally Inuyasha gave Shippo some bread that he had been saving. Kagome had looked disappointed, but strangely didn't say anything. 

            "_This isn't like her. Normally, she would have 'sat' me by now, or at least yelled at me. What's on her mind?_"

            After the noise had calmed down, Shippo had fallen asleep, and they had wrapped Kaede in blankets, Kagome, Miroku, Sango, and Inuyasha were left sitting around the fire. They all looked worn out, but weren't quite ready to go to sleep yet. Kagome broke the silence by getting up and going over to the door.

            "Where are you going?" Sango asked, sleepily.

            "I want to go look at the stars. They are supposed to be really bright out tonight," Kagome replied.

            "Suit yourself," Sango replied, and turned back to stare at the fire. Kagome cast a quick glance at Inuyasha, then picked up a blanket from her backpack, wrapped it around herself, and stepped outside into the cold winter night. 

            "Crazy fool," Inuyasha said, and got up to go after her. 

            Kagome was standing a few feet away from the hut, gazing up at the stars overhead. Inuyasha quietly slipped out of the hut, and silently approached her.            

            "_Good...this is my chance..._" he thought. He crept up, and was about to tap her on the shoulder, when she turned around, and smiled at him.

            "You're not very good at sneaking up. I could hear you," she said. He looked surprised, but shrugged.

            "I guess I'm not," he said. They just stood there in silence, awkwardly, for a few minutes. Inuyasha finally broke the silence.

            "So...you looked kind of disappointed earlier when I didn't give out gifts," he said. She blushed slightly.

            "Well...It's Christmas, you know," she replied. He just shrugged.

            "Well, I actually have a present for you," he said. She looked surprised. He turned around, and motioned for her to follow him. He led her around to the back of Kaede's hut, to a spot underneath the outside roof of the hut that was lit up dimly by moonlight. He turned around, then smiled at her. 

            "Look up," he said. She looked up, confused, and didn't see anything at first. But then, she began to see a dim shape in the moonlight...it looked like some kind of plant. She looked back at him, confused. His face suddenly seemed a lot closer to her's than before... She blinked in surprise, as he leaned down toward her. Their lips were merely centimeters apart, when it hit her.

            "_Mistletoe!!_" she thought, feeling like an idiot for not realizing it sooner. The half-demon gently grabbed her shoulders, and pulled her into a kiss. A warm kiss, a passionate kiss...even a loving kiss. She wrapped her hands around his neck and kissed him back with the same amount of passion and love. When they finally broke the kiss, he held on to her shoulders for a few more seconds.

            "Merry Christmas, Kagome. Aishiteru," he whispered. She smiled, and brought her hands back down to her sides, as he released her shoulders. 

            "You remember that I said I would give you the second part of your present later, right?" she asked him. He nodded. She grinned at him, and held up something that looked suspiciously like Inuyasha's necklace.

            Miroku looked over at Sango, who was staring at the fire. He sighed.

            "Sango?" he asked.

            "Hmn?" she replied, sleepily.

            "Did you like the gift I got you?" he asked. She looked over at him.

            "Yeah, it was *yawn* great," she said. "Why?" 

            "No reason. Just wondering," 

            "D-did you like the gift I got you?" she asked. He smiled slightly.

            "Yes, I did actually. The best gifts come from the heart, you know," he replied. 

            "Seriously, Miroku. Were you disappointed?" she asked. 

            "Of course not! Any gift I get from you is--" he stopped in mid-sentence. She looked worried.

            "Is?" she asked.

            "Is...well, I'm never disappointed with any gift that you give me," he replied, blushing. She looked shocked, then mildly amused.

            "Why, Miroku, I'm touched! If you weren't always such a pervert I might actually consider bearing your child!" she replied, jokingly. 

            "REALLY?!" he almost screamed, and jumped up. 

            "Be quiet! You'll wake up Kaede and Shippo!!" she reprimanded him. He sat back down on his sleeping bag for a second, then made a move to stand up and drag it closer to Sango's sleeping bag. She instantly had her huge boomerang in her hands.

            "If you come any closer I'll have to hurt you," she warned him. He shrugged, and plopped down on his sleeping bag where it was.

            "Can't blame a guy for trying," he replied. 

            "Merry Christmas, Inuyasha," she said, as his hands suddenly flew up to his neck in shock, where the prayer beads no longer rested. He looked at her in total shock, for once.

            "Kagome--" he started. She cut him off.

            "Aishiteru," she said. He was too shocked and almost too joyful for words, so he just hugged her tightly, a huge grin for once on his face.

            "_The one thing that I learned this Christmas is that the best gifts can't be bought...or made, or stolen. The best gifts are always simple, but special_," Kagome thought.

            "Hey, Kagome? Could you do me one favor?" Inuyasha asked. 

            "Sure, what?" she replied. 

            "Could you say sit a few billion times?" he requested. 

            "Good to be free?" she asked.

            "You betcha!" 

            "You know, I can always have Kaede put it back on you," 

            "You wouldn't-?!"

            "You never know," 

            "You're joking right?"

            "...."

            "Kagome?!"

            "....."

            "Please tell me you're joking!!"    

            Owari!!! ^______^

Japanese Words:

Aishiteru: I love you!! (^^)

Owari: The end!!


End file.
